Communication system and method

• US 20050063524A1
• Filed: 11/02/2004
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Leader Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Leader Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Dugal, Wayne, Lamb, Jeffrey R., McKibben, Michael T.
• Application Number:
  US10/979,611
• Publication Number:
  US 20050063524A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.180
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A voice response component that interfaces to a digital telephone communications system to, generally, communicate voice messages, and more specifically, to provide call conferencing. The voice response component includes a non-voice communications bus, and a session component that interfaces to the voice response component to manage processing of the voice messages by routing the voice messages along the non-voice communications bus to facilitate managing a call session.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates call processing, comprising:

a voice response component that interfaces to a digital telephone communications system to communicate voice messages, the voice response component including a non-voice communications bus; and

a session component that interfaces to the voice response component to manage processing of the voice messages by routing the voice messages along the non-voice communications bus to facilitate managing a call session.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the call session is a conference call session.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-voice communications bus facilitates communications according to an MVIP (Multi-Vendor Integration Protocol) architecture.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-voice communications bus facilitates communications according to at least one of an H.100 bus and an H.110 bus architecture.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an access component that facilitates user interaction via a browser from a remote location.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the session component facilitates management of digital processing resources of the voice response component by assigning session calls thereto.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the digital processing resources include digital signal processors.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the session component facilitates dedicating select ones of the digital signal processors to perform noise cancellation, volume control, and echo cancellation.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the session component facilitates dynamically assigning incoming call lines to digital resources.

10. A computer that employs the system of claim 1.

11. A web-based server that employs the system of claim 1.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of session participants are called substantially simultaneously to be brought into the call session.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein a new session participant is called, prompted for a custom greeting, the custom greeting recorded, and replayed to existing session participants.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein a PIN of a new participant is processed to bind the new participant into the call session.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein a PIN of a caller is processed to create a new conference call session.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice response component automatically recognizes a facsimile signal and facilitates processing of contents thereof for storage in a database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the contents of the facsimile are automatically recognized and stored as text in the database.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice response component automatically receives and facilitates storage in a flat file a telephone number of a caller.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein a group of people can be invited to the call session in response to a single user input action via a graphical user interface (GUI).

20. The system of claim 19, wherein data representative of the group of people is associated with an e-mail address book such that selection of a corresponding group of names automatically effects communication of an invitation to join the call session.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein a session caller using a first telephone to interact with the call session can switch from the first telephone to a second telephone that connects to the call session without interruption during the call session.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the session component facilitates starting the call session only after a session host has logged in.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the session component facilitates starting the call session when a non-host participant has logged in.

24. A system that facilitates call processing, comprising:

a voice response component that interfaces to a digital telephone communications system to communicate voice messages, the voice response component including an MVIP-based non-voice communications bus;

a session component that interfaces to the voice response component to manage processing of the voice messages by routing the voice messages along the non-voice communications bus to facilitate managing a conference call session; and

a web-based access component that facilitates remote access to the session component via a GUI.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the non-voice communications bus facilitates communications according to at least one of an H.100 bus and an H.110 bus architecture.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein a plurality of session participants are called substantially simultaneously to be brought into the conference call session.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the voice response component automatically recognizes a facsimile signal and facilitates processing of the contents thereof for storage in a database as a text file.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the a group of people can be invited to the call session in response to a single user input action via the GUI and data representative of the group of people is associated with an e-mail address book such that selection of a corresponding group of names automatically effects communication of an invitation to join the call session.

29. The system of claim 24, wherein a session caller using a first telephone to interact with the call session can switch from the first telephone to a second telephone that connects to the call session without interruption during the call session.

30. A method of managing a conference call, comprising:

communicating telephone calls via multiple call lines of a telephone communications system, the multiple call lines associated with a first call processing component;

dynamically assigning the telephone calls to a digital resource of a second call processing component;

routing the telephone calls from the first call processing component to the second call processing resource across a non-voice communications bus; and

processing the telephone calls as a conference call session.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising dynamically allocating and de-allocating ports of the digital resource to facilitate the conference call session.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising allocating a second digital resource to facilitate echo cancellation.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising allocating a second digital resource to facilitate noise cancellation.

34. The method of claim 30, further comprising allocating a second digital resource to facilitate volume control.

35. The method of claim 30, the first and second call processing components each includes a plurality of digital resources that are dynamically allocated and de-allocated in accordance with a number of the telephone calls.

36. The method of claim 30, further comprising dialing session participants substantially dynamically and binding the session participants into the conference call session.

37. The method of claim 30, further comprising that acts of:

calling a new participant over one of the multiple call lines;

prompting the new participant to input a custom message;

recording the custom message; and

replaying the custom message to existing participants of the call session.

38. The method of claim 30, further comprising the acts of:

receiving a call from a new participant;

prompting the new participant for a PIN;

validating the PIN; and

binding the new participant into the call session.

39. The method of claim 30, further comprising the acts of:

receiving a call from a new participant over one of the multiple call lines;

prompting the new participant for a PIN;

validating the PIN; and

creating a new conference call session.

40. The method of claim 30, further comprising the acts of:

receiving a call over one of the multiple call lines;

detecting that the call is a facsimile signal;

processing facsimile information of the facsimile signal; and

automatically writing the facsimile information to a data store.

41. The method of claim 30, further comprising the acts of:

receiving a call of a caller over one of the multiple call lines;

prompting the caller for a PIN; and

writing a telephone number associated with the call and the PIN to a flat file.

42. The method of claim 30, further comprising the acts of:

grouping usernames as a group;

selecting the group; and

automatically calling each user associated with the respective username in response to a single input command.

43. The method of claim 30, further comprising at least one of adding, dropping, and muting a session participant at any time via a GUI.

44. The method of claim 30, further comprising automatically sending a session reminder via e-mail.

45. A method of managing a conference call, comprising:

communicating telephone calls via multiple call lines of a telephone communications system, the multiple call lines associated with a first call processing component that communicates over common non-voice communications bus;

dynamically assigning a subset of the telephone calls to a second digital resource of a second call processing component;

routing the telephone calls from the first call processing component to the second call processing resource across the non-voice communications bus;

processing the subset of telephone calls as a conference call session; and

dynamically allocating and de-allocating ports of the second digital resource to facilitate the conference call session.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising dialing session participants substantially dynamically and binding the session participants into the conference call session.

47. The method of claim 45, further comprising binding received telephone calls into the call session.